Thirsty

To begin, I must say that until yesterday, Friday, July 2, 2004, I was strongly pro-choice. I am a pre-medical student, and being very scientific, I understood that the mass of cells that forms the fetal body is not often capable of survival before 24 weeks in the womb. I am also somewhat liberal, and I believed that every woman should have the right to choose what she did with her body and one that could potentially be growing inside of her. This summer, I was accepted into a pre-medicalprogram in NYC in which we are allowed to shadow doctors and see all sorts of medical procedures. When given the opportunity to see an abortion, I did not hesitate to accept the offer. It was something new, edgy, and exciting that I had never seen. When I entered the operating room, it felt like any other I had ever been in. On the table in front of me, I saw a woman, legs up as if delivering a child although she was asleep. Next to her was a tray of instruments for the abortion and a vacuum machine fo...

So, um, last night I went "clubbing". ;-) This weekend I spent both evenings with Dean, he just moved up here from Muncie. We hung out together in high school quite a bit, and perpetrated a number of high schoolish acts of vandalism as a part of a... gang? :) that we were in. We all keep varying degrees of contact with each other, so it's been great reconnecting with him. There's so much confusion in the world. My Dad used to regularly bring up the notion that pride is not only one of the seven deadly sins , but is itself the motherload. The root, the origin of all the others. It was always a simple illustration for him, because the clashing of our own senses of pride was a pretty regular thing for us. Fortunately, by now, it's such a recognizable thing that we can help each other disarm ourselves. Anyway, there's not much point to this, except to say that I realize even moreso each day, that pride is the cause of this confusion. Humb...

Oh, how I love it. Despite (or because of?) my own vote, I've really enjoyed watching the fray of of emotions splashing about the blogosphere. Serious attempts at gloating, and conversely serious symptoms of paranoia, themselves disinterest me. But in a way, the more mild forms, or the more utterly fantastical, draw me in in sick fascination. Sorry Everybody - it's currently getting bombed with hits, but try to take a moment and peruse the gallery San Francisco rally - Nov. 3rd, took birth immediately following Kerry's concession Caption Contest - some of that mild/fantastical gloating... Feel free to add more sites to the comments! You can even add an HTML link if you want: <a href="http://wherever.com">blah dee blah</a>

Finally, I am street legal ! I was driving on expired plates for a few weeks, and for the past few months I've been getting raped on monthly parking in my building. When I was in Muncie this past weekend, I went to the BMV and requested a new copy of the title to my truck, which I had lost. Wednesday I received that in my mailbox here, and Thursday morning I drove out to an Illinois Driver Services Facility. I got my title transferred to Illinois, got it registered, and had to pay an extra $25 since pickup trucks aren't allowed to park on the street with standard plates. I then had to buy a Chicago sticker for living in Chicago, and a zone sticker for parking on the streets in my neighborhood. Lastly, I bought 30 guest passes for $6 total. Each guest pass will allow any car to park in my neighborhood for 24 hours. Hear that folks?! You may now visit me, and park near my place, without paying for parking. I'm pretty close to downtown, at the intersection of Bank...

Charlie, my five-year-old, has become interested in the presidential election. The only thing I've told him about it is that President Bush wants to fight bad guys, and John Kerry wants to talk to bad guys, even if the bad guys just want to hurt people. "Does that mean people who vote for John Kerry are bad people?" he asked. "Not necessarily," I replied. "It does mean they're making a bad choice." My words seemed to have had more than a slight effect on him. Yesterday, when the kids were out trick-or-treating, my wife reported that Charlie saw a yard sign and sounded out the words on it. "K...eh...r...ee...Kerry. Those people are voting for John Kerry!" he exclaimed. Meanwhile, all the kids he was walking with started walking up to the front door. "Hey, don't go up there!" Charlie yelled. "Those people are voting for John Kerry!" My wife tried to explain that this really wasn't the time for arguing...